A Case of Love (10 page)

"So why won't you go out with me?"

"Well,” she said slowly. “There's reasons."

"What kind of reasons?” he asked, turning her face with his hand so that she looked at him. “Tell me one."

"You want one reason?"

"That's what I said."

She wiggled her finger at him, turning so she could face him a little easier. “Come closer and I'll tell you."

He moved closer, putting his cheek next to hers, feeling her breath against the hair near his ears, her perfume surrounding him. It made waiting for her answer even harder, to feel her so close and know she might be pulling away. Well, he just wouldn't let her. His active brain was already trying to come up with whatever excuse she could give him, finding solutions and mulling over the situation, so he almost missed the words she whispered in his ear.

"What? What was that?” he said, his eyes opening wide. “Say it again."

"Because I'd rather stay in with you."

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"Because I'd rather stay in with you."

Hawk stared at her, unable for a moment to comprehend her words. He peered into the amazing amber of her eyes, seeing something in them that sent a thrill of fear and a surge of anticipation through him. “Do you mean that?” he asked her slowly.

"Oh yeah,” she answered. She wasn't ready for his response, for he took the drink out of her hand and the rest of the fries and grabbed her hand, pulling her off the bench. Tossing their litter in a trash barrel, he started pulling her out to the parking lot. “What are you doing, Gideon?” she asked, amused.

"We're going back to my place and I'm going to see how long I can stay in you,” he answered, deliberately making a play of her words. “Quit dawdling and shake that tail."

"Tail?” she snorted. “Do I look like a cat to you?"

He bent his head, kissing her briefly before tugging on her once more. “Oh yeah,” he groaned. “My very own sex kitten."

They were almost to the gates when they heard the first scream. Both of them turned, staring at the woman who was shrieking. She stood next to an empty baby carriage, holding a blanketed bundle in her arms. Kenzie gasped when she dropped it, watching the baby fall to the ground and roll.

"It's a bear,” Hawk said as the blanket dropped away to reveal soft brown fuzz and a button nose.

"My
baby
!” the woman shrieked. “Someone stole my baby!"

"Shit,” Hawk growled, dropping Mac's arm. “Don't move."

Mac stared at his back, than rolled her eyes, hurrying after him. “Don't move, my ass,” she muttered. She reached the woman as her knees began to buckle, quickly grabbing her arm to support her. “Whoa."

"How long was the baby alone?” Hawk prodded, his eyes moving through the crowd.

"Not more than a second or two,” the woman sobbed. “I was getting my daughter off a ride and when I turned back around...” she trailed off, her eyes going wide. “Martina? Marty?!"

"Here, momma.” The little blonde girl moved past some of the growing crowd. “I saw him, the man who took my brother. He had on a black jacket."

"Which way did he go Marty?” Hawk asked, bending down to her height.

"That way,” she said, pointing toward the parking lot.

"Call 911,” he yelled at Mac, then pulled his off duty piece out of the back holster, checking the load as he pushed through the people.

"You heard him,” Mac yelled at a man whose cell phone stuck out of his pocket. “Call the cops."

She was on Hawk's heels, racing after him.

"What are you doing?” he shouted.

"Coming with you, four eyes are better than two."

"Mackenzie Hunter, you are not going with me.” He didn't stop, just turned and gave her a look that was supposed to freeze her in her tracks.

But Kenzie wasn't frozen. She rolled her eyes, and quickened her pace. Her eyes roamed over the cars, moving from one to the other, searching for a sign of the man who'd taken the baby. For a moment, she thought her eyes were tricking her, but then a longer look made out a shadow a little darker than the others around it.

"Gideon! Over there!” she shouted, pointing to where the man was standing under the shadow of a bunch of trees at the edge of the lot.

Hawk turned, seeing the man. “Freeze! Police!” he shouted, training his gun towards the man.

Mac spun on her heel, racing down a row of cars, heading toward the man as Hawk raced down the other side. The shadow cursed, bending and then running, heading toward the street as Hawk followed in pursuit. Mac started after them only to be stopped by the sound of a cry. “Oh,” she gasped, running to where the man had been standing. The little boy, his clothing half stripped off of him and bunched around his neck was howling at the indignity of it all.

"Shh,” Mackenzie crooned, quickly picking him up off the ground and struggling to straighten his clothing. She turned, her eyes on Gideon, gasping as a car nearly clipped his leg. The same car plowed into the man Hawk had been chasing, sending him flying into the air to come down hard against the windshield.

"Shit,” Mac whispered, hearing the sound of brakes squealing and then the sound of sirens, shrill above the sound of the park. Mac watched for a minute more before turning toward where they'd left the woman with her daughter.

"Oh God! Oh God! Thank you,” the woman cried, taking the fussing baby from Mac's arms and holding him to her. “Thank you so much."

"He seems to be fine. You might want him to be checked out anyway,” Mac said, backing away a step as two police officers in uniform came up to them. She started to turn away to go to Hawk, but one of the officers stopped her.

"What's your role in this, Miss?” he asked, grasping her upper arm.

"Take your hands off of me,” she gasped, trying to jerk her arm out of his tight grip.

"Are you resisting?"

"Resisting what? You're hurting me,” she snapped.

Mac tried to move away but suddenly found herself pushed up against one of the metal fences that enclosed the rides. Her arms were yanked behind her back and she felt a set of cold metal cuffs snapped into place. They dug into her wrists, hurting her. “What are you doing?” she grunted, one of the metal bars that made up the fence jabbing into her stomach.

"Don't move,” the cop growled, kicking her feet apart.

Kenzie gasped as she felt his hard hands moving over her body, patting her down. He even ran his hand over her groin and under each of her breasts. By the time he was done, she was livid, her face red with anger and her eyes almost like heated gold, blazing her fury at the cop.

"So now, are you willing to talk civilly or do we have to take this downtown. I have resisting arrest, I could probably come up with a couple other charges by the time we get there.” He smirked down at her as he yanked her away from the fence.

She was about to open her mouth and tell him what he could do with his talking civilly when she heard Hawk's voice. “Let her go, Brooks."

"Do you know this woman, Detective?"

"Yes, she's my girlfriend.” He reached over, pulling his own keys out of his pocket and slipped his handcuff key into the small holes, turning them and then throwing them back at the officer. “What'd she do?"

"I asked her what she was doing here, she didn't give me a satisfactory answer. Then she tried to resist when I was going to arrest her."

"I'd resist you too, you numb nuts. Get the fuck over there and take over traffic duty. Send the officer over there here to take this lady's statement. Do you think you can do that right?” Hawk's voice was a grumbly roar, watching as the man took a step back before turning away red faced.

"I think you just made an enemy,” Kenzie said softly, rubbing her wrists where the cuffs had bit in.

"He's not the first and won't be the last,” Hawk quipped. He took her chin in his hand, lifting it to drop a kiss upon her sweet lips. “But you'd better watch it, I could get busted back down to beat cop if I'm caught dating a felon. Resisting arrest is a pretty serious crime."

"Oh you're just so cute I'm about to puke,” she said, her eyes narrowing, her hand gently slapping at his arm. “Besides, you almost got yourself killed or maimed or something out there."

"All part and parcel of the service.” He looked up as the mother of the little one who'd been taken walked up to them.

"Thank you so much,” she said, tears still streaking down her face. She had the baby held in her arm and Marty holding onto her hand. “I would have died if something had happened to Chase."

"He's okay?” Hawk asked softly, his hand coming out to trace over the baby's downy cheek.

"He's fine. The man hadn't had time to hurt him."

"Just keep a better eye on him,” Hawk said, running a gentle finger down the baby's downy soft cheek. “Hi little guy,” he said, watching as the baby's dark blue eyes turned toward him. He smiled down at Marty. “You did real good today, Marty. You saved your baby brother."

Marty smiled shyly up at Hawk, her big blue eyes shining before she hid behind her mom, sneaking peeks at him.

"We're on our way home,” the woman said, “but I wanted to thank both of you."

"Officer?” he called. “Come and help Mrs..."

"Burton."

"...Mrs. Burton to her car,” Hawk finished, smiling down at the shy Marty.

Mac bent down until she was at Marty's level. “Could you do me a favor?” she asked her. “Do you think you could give this little hippo a home? I can't have pets in my apartment."

"Can I momma?” Marty whispered, looking up at her mom.

Mrs. Burton nodded, mouthing the words, “thank you,” to Mac.

Marty reached out slowly, taking the stuffed pink hippo with the big fake eyelashes. She wrapped her arms around it, hugging it to her slender body, it was almost as big as she was. “Thank you,” she said, her eyes big, almost as big as the smile upon her face.

"You're welcome, Marty.” She stood up, watching them go and waving when Marty turned around and glanced back at her.

"I guess I'll never know now,” Hawk said, sighing heavily.

"Know what?"

"Whether it would have been the darts or the date? You gave away my gauge,” he said.

"You poor baby. Guess you'll just have to bite the bullet then, huh? So, you like kids?"

"What's not to like?” he asked in return, turning to face her, his hands on her waist. He leaned down to drop a kiss upon her lips. “Don't you?"

"Yeah, in my family it's kind of a necessity. There are a lot of us Hunters around."

"Like your cousin, Brett?” he asked, dropping his forehead down so that it leaned against hers. “You have brothers and sisters?"

"Just a brother, Chance. He still lives in Texas...” Her eyes sparkled and she slowly let her hands slide up his chest, her fingers trailing circles around his ears before twining in his hair. “I thought we were planning on staying in before we were so rudely interrupted."

"Definitely,” he groaned, letting her pull him down. Her mouth settled upon his lips, sending fire splintering through him, pooling in his groin. He could feel the blood rushing to his cock and ran his hands down over the curve of her ass, yanking her against his erection. He heard her gasp and then her hum of pleasure, felt her rub against him, her leg moving against his thigh.

"You know, Hawk, I'd really hate to run you in for indecent exposure. It would really look bad on your record,” a voice behind them said.

Hawk lifted his head but refused to release Mac. “Hey Ang,” he said with a smile. “Carla, how'd you manage to get this guy to take you out?” He felt Mac bury her face in his chest and moan softly in frustration. He could definitely agree with the feeling.

"Threats,” Carla said, smiling and looking curiously towards Mac. “I told him I was leaving him and giving him the children.” The short dark haired beauty grinned, her eyes sparkling with humor. “He was on the phone calling sitters before I could finish my sentence."

"You're an evil woman, Carla. I'm glad you're on the side of good.” He slowly relaxed his grip on Mackenzie. “You remember my partner, Ang, from the night of the raid, don't you Mac? This is his wife, Carla. Carla, Mackenzie Hunter."

"Oh, you're the girl that Ang was griping about,” Carla said, a huge grin on her face. She glanced over at her husband, seeing the pained red expression upon his and narrowed her eyes. “He told me that Hawk gets all the fun while my poor little Ang gets stuck sitting in the van picking his nails. So what kind of fun was he talking about?"

"Uh...” Mac looked up at Hawk who was grinning over at Ang, who looked decidedly uncomfortable. “It was mostly a very stress filled situation. I didn't think I'd live through it until Hawk managed to whisper to me that the cops would be there soon."

"I read your article, you really made the police look good.” She reached out and hugged Ang's arm. “Not many reporters do that with the police. They seem fixated upon making them look bad, or dirty."

"I probably would have ended up dead that day if it hadn't been for Hawk,” Mac said, glancing up at him as she spoke. “Jimmy had just found my press identification card. He'd never have let me leave knowing what I had learned that night."

"Ah, gratitude, that's what you're doing out here with him,” Ang said, chuckling as Hawk gave him a dirty look.

"No, gratitude is what got him into my apartment at three a.m. the morning of the raid.” She ran her hand over Hawk's hand, twining her fingers with his. “He just doesn't take no for an answer,” she said rolling her eyes.

"Hey!” Hawk exclaimed, his voice turning to a deep growl. “Watch it woman."

"See me shaking?” Mac teased.

"So what are you two doing?” Carla asked, grinning at their play.

"Well, we were on our way back to...Unh,” he grunted as Mac's elbow smacked into his ribs. He turned and glared at her, even as she pasted a sweet smile upon her lush mouth.

"Back into town to get dinner,” she finished for him. “He rushed me out here without feeding me."

"You should try that new pasta place on Fifth Street. They have the best antipasto salad I've ever had,” Carla said, grabbing Ang's hand. “It was nice meeting you, Mac. Hawk, you should bring her by sometime for dinner. I'd love to get to know her better. Come on Ang, you have to win me a stuffed animal,” she said, yanking on his arm and sending Hawk a conspiratorial smile.